Sky Sports Revamp

greendom

Interesting article here on Sky's plans to amend their pricing structure.

Seems that if you only want to pay for football (for example) you will be able to...

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jun/27/sky-sports-channels-prices-football-golf-cricket

The Ayatolla

Whens that happening?

tayto lover

They really had to offer these cheaper sports channels.
I know loads of people who gave up Sky due to the expense and poor coverage of Premier League football. It simply wasn't worth it.

dubrov

I'd say the Premier League package will be 80-90% the cost of the full package so won't be much of a saving for football fans

icdg

Moved to Broadcasting

This hasn't been announced yet, but is being widely reported and has been rumoured for ages. Marks a major shift for Sky Sports, and a change in focus towards four sports: football (which will apparently have two channels, one dedicated to the Premier League), cricket, golf, and Formula One (which goes exclusively to Sky in 2019). Everything else goes on Sky Sports Arena. To me this signals that fans of the sports which are not among the favoured few can look forward to Sky not paying as much attention - with rugby union in particular ripe for a downgrade.

lertsnim

I hope they allow subscribers to have only sports channels without the basic or variety pack but I'm not betting on that happening. It is the only way I'd consider subscribing again.

mackersdublin

lertsnim wrote: »

I hope they allow subscribers to have only sports channels without the basic or variety pack but I'm not betting on that happening. It is the only way I'd consider subscribing again.

You can do that with Now TV

Jurgen Klopp

lertsnim wrote: »

I hope they allow subscribers to have only sports channels without the basic or variety pack but I'm not betting on that happening. It is the only way I'd consider subscribing again.

I know a lot of people who only want sports and have eir for €20 a month and would be willing pay another €20 for sky sports alone

They don't have nowtv tho and some are elderly who won't want to pay for net just for it either

Harry Palmr

When is the rugger European Cup next up for grabs? Mind you BT will probably snap it up.

CalamariFritti

Before you all get excited I would like to remind you that Sky Sports is available through NowTV as a standalone subscription in the UK for 25 Sterling. Standalone as in you don't need a basic subscription. You only want Sky Sports? Here you go, 25 Pound all in.

The same is priced at 50 Euro here. :eek: Reason given by Sky spokesperson: 'Its priced at what makes sense here'.

lertsnim

mackersdublin wrote: »

You can do that with Now TV

I'd much rather have it in HD and not rely on my internet provider. We are also being ripped off in this country with Now TV.

icdg

Harry Palmr wrote: »

When is the rugger European Cup next up for grabs? Mind you BT will probably snap it up.

Now. Seemingly tenders are already in and at least one source is saying that BT are preferred bidder for the U.K. pay-TV rights from 2018 onwards.

icdg

CalamariFritti wrote: »

Before you all get excited I would like to remind you that Sky Sports is available through NowTV as a standalone subscription in the UK for 25 Sterling. Standalone as in you don't need a basic subscription. You only want Sky Sports? Here you go, 25 Pound all in.

The same is priced at 50 Euro here. :eek: Reason given by Sky spokesperson: 'Its priced at what makes sense here'.

It's £34, which is €38. Yes that's still a big gap. But bear in mind this big caveat: Sky do not want Sky Digital subscribers to switch to Now TV. Price Now TV more attractively and that is exactly what will happen. They will not be pricing it any lower than the Sky Digital price (€40).

Kristopherus

icdg wrote: »

It's £34, which is €38. Yes that's still a big gap. But bear in mind this big caveat: Sky do not want Sky Digital subscribers to switch to Now TV. Price Now TV more attractively and that is exactly what will happen. They will not be pricing it any lower than the Sky Digital price (€40).

No. Its €50 per month for Irish customers. Right now they have a 1-month offer of €25 for Sky Sports, for new custoners only iirc.

icdg

It is indeed €50 for the Irish Now TV Monthly Sports Pass and I never said any different.

The £34 is the UK Now TV Monthly Sports Pass price (not £25 as a previous poster stated) and the €38 is the conversion of the UK price into euros supplied by xe.com rounded to the nearest euro.

The €40 is the full price of the full Sky Sports Bundle on Sky Digital.

tayto lover

50 euro a month just for Sky Sports is still too expensive. They can feck off.

CalamariFritti

Sorry I didn't mean to give false information. I took the 25 Pound from a website. I googled again and it comes up with 31.99 Pound. Apologies

Infoanon

icdg wrote: »

Moved to Broadcasting

This hasn't been announced yet, but is being widely reported and has been rumoured for ages. Marks a major shift for Sky Sports, and a change in focus towards four sports: football (which will apparently have two channels, one dedicated to the Premier League), cricket, golf, and Formula One (which goes exclusively to Sky in 2019). Everything else goes on Sky Sports Arena. To me this signals that fans of the sports which are not among the favoured few can look forward to Sky not paying as much attention - with rugby union in particular ripe for a downgrade.

Its very similar to how Sky operate in other markets - in other markets Sky also have 'pop-up' channels for special events eg Loins Tour / Cricket

Article as well in the Irish Times. No comment yet from Sky themselves.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/sky-to-offer-cheaper-sports-packages-in-major-brand-revamp-1.3136598

Rick_

Some of the new logos and channel names have apparently been revealed:

Delta2113

Above logo's are fake I would suspect.

Elmo

It kind of goes against GAA position that it would bring GAA to a wider audience in GB. If Sky Sports subscribers can avoid paying for Arena, where most GAA games will air, it will diminish the number of GB subscribers with access to the GAA.

Is there anything official from sky on this?

icdg

Nothing official from Sky. There is some suggestion we might hear around the time of their new season launch in mid July. Even that is speculation.

mollser

irish times wrote:

while viewing has dropped significantly for various reasons, mainly the rise in illegal internet streams and TV boxes.

This is delusional. The reason the subs have dropped is because the ludicrous cost of them. Its certainly why I dropped it about 6 years ago, the ability to use internet streams is a nice to have but I'd sooner do without all together.

Schwanz

Sky doing this suggests that subscriptions for their overpriced sports pack are dwindling.

Crazy prices

jimbo2007

The scheduling for post 18th July appears to suggest

Current Sky Sports 1 will show the primary sport event6 of the day and simulcast Sky Sports News overnight between 2200-1000 in general..  When the Open is on The pen will also be on there in its entirety.

Current Sky Sports 2 will carry EPL only including documentaries and archive content.
Current Sky Sports 3 will carry EFL, Scottish, International football plus archive content for non-EPL football
Current Sky Sports 4 will carry cricket only including cricket documentaries etc
Current Sky Sports 5 will carry golf only including golf documentaries etc
We will still have Sky Sports News HQ, Sky sports F1 and Sky Sports Mix.  That is 8 channels.

If there are two new ones, there are currently four tests that these coulkd be

12.148 H SR 27500 FEC 5/6 DVB-S QPSK

3838 - currently testing with test EPG labelled "Lima 1"
11.798 H SR 29500 FEC 8/9 DVB-S2 QPSK

3939 - HD version of 3838 on 12.148 H
(both of these re unknown)

There is also

12.207 V SR 2750 FEC 5/6 DVB-S qPSK

3841 - unknown inactive service

11.798 H SR 29500 FEC 8/9 DVB-S2 QPSK

3927 - unknown inactive service
(I suspect 3927 will be an HD simulcast f 3841
However time will tell.  Sky recently closed the pub versions that they have o Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports News HQ.  These now run in HD only but the capacity for them has been taken by these new channels (in SD).  The HD capacity is previously unused on existing HD capacity.

The annoying thing is they have the same amount of rights, but spreading it out onto 10 channels instead of 8.  And, one is simulcasts so that makes 7 actual channels - and they are launching two more!  For goodness sake why?

Supersport in South Africa has 13 channels - a news channel plus 12 more.  None of these as far as I know hve simulcasting but I may be wrong.  Sky do not have enough rights to have 10 separate channels so I doubt if you will get much value for money out of this new arrangement.

For Irish viewers, you have your own version of Sky Sports 1-5, Sky Sports News with searate ads, plus HD version of Sky Sports 1 and 5 Ireland.  Sky Sports 2, 3 and 4 Ireland are SD only at present, and there is no variant for Sky Sports F1 or Sky Sports Mix.

Goodness knows what they will do with the new line-up. 

If Action and Arena are to exist, these will be the two new ones but all this will surely lead to a lot of confusion.  The mvie channels keep getting changed all the time as well which annoys me intenselky.

icdg

There will be at least one new one, as the rugby, GAA, and other rights that they have need to go somewhere.

There's some suggestion from one press source that there'll be a press launch for this today.

Ludo

Details here...no mention of pricing though.

http://www.skysports.com/relaunch?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral

icdg

So not only were the logos real, but we have two new general channels, Sky Sports Arena (408) and Sky Sports Action (407). Sky Sports News moves to 409. (No indication of what happens to Sky Sports Mix).

The UK are getting tiered pricing (one channel for £18, two for £22, three for £26 - though at that stage you may as well take the lot at £27.50 - no indication of ROI prices yet).

The other big news is that 402 does indeed become an exclusive and co-branded Premier League channel.

Schwanz

Wouldn't be surprised if you can only have Sky Sports PL if you only subscribe to the rest of the channels

Delta2113

Schwanz wrote: »

Wouldn't be surprised if you can only have Sky Sports PL if you only subscribe to the rest of the channels

I doubt it very much -not the situation in the U.K.

PaddyCar

I presume you need to have the basic entertainment package first and then add on whatever sports ones you want.

jack presley

Are Action and Arena replacing SS Mix? Just wondering what Virgin customers will get?

lertsnim

What is the point of the main event channel if all it will do is simulcast live events from other channels.

Schwanz

So Main Event will only be available to be viewed by customers who take all the channels

Schwanz

So Main Event will only be available to be viewed by customers who take all the channels

Ludo

People used to going to 401 for the soccer....if they do that without subbing to ALL sports channels they will see an upgrade message as they wont have channel 401 without all channels being subbed to. They will have to switch the PL channel. It just sounds like an annoyance channel to encourage people to sub to ALL the channels so they also get this 401 channel as a "bonus" so they can always have quick access ot the "main event" from across all channels.

Delta2113

10 Channels so 2 new channels basically.

SS 1-5 plus sports mix,f1, sports news = 8

jack presley

Delta2113 wrote: »

10 Channels so 2 new channels basically.

SS 1-5 plus sports mix,f1, sports news = 8

PL
Football
Cricket
Golf
F1
Action
Arena
Main Event
News
Mix

Edit - although there's no mention of Mix (or am I just missing it?)

Delta2113

So comparing old with new:-

SS1 PL
SS2 Football
SS3 Cricket
SS4 Golf
SS5 -pick from one from 3 Action,Arena,Main Event leaving 2 new channels.
F1 F1
News News
Mix Mix

Captain_Crash

Just on the phone to SKY to cancel the sports, and the lady said this new revamp is UK only and that in Ireland nothing changes except the channel names.

Ludo

Captain_Crash wrote: »

Just on the phone to SKY to cancel the sports, and the lady said this new revamp is UK only and that in Ireland nothing changes except the channel names.

That doesnt make sense though surely.

jack presley

From the legal section:

"Main Even Channel is a bonus channel showing live content from the other Sky Sports channels at the same time as it is available on such channels. Only available with the Sky Sports complete pack."

What is the point of this channel if you can watch them on the channel they are on? I don't get it.

Captain_Crash

Ludo wrote: »

That doesnt make sense though surely.

I saw this thread earlier, which reminded me to cancel because I never watch Sky Sports yet pay trough the nose for it. I mentioned the revamp on the phone and the lady said that it wasn't happening in Ireland. So I thought its worth a mention here.

Make of it what you will but that's what she said.

JoeyJJ

Just cancelled my sports this morning to see if there is a half price deal in autumn and don't mind missing a bit of the start of the season.

No sure its much of a change, its a difficult problem to give cheaper price for a cut of the options without cannibalizing your own customers who pay full price.

icdg

Ludo wrote: »

That doesnt make sense though surely.

To possibly put it better - the agent appears to be telling the OP that tiered pricing won't be available to ROI customers (i.e it will be all or nothing).

Of course the content and EPG changes all effect ROI too.

Sky Sports Mix is moving to 121 in the entertainment section incidentally.

peejay1986

Assuming it'll still be SD as standard?

jack presley

Captain_Crash wrote: »

I saw this thread earlier, which reminded me to cancel because I never watch Sky Sports yet pay trough the nose for it. I mentioned the revamp on the phone and the lady said that it wasn't happening in Ireland. So I thought its worth a mention here.

Make of it what you will but that's what she said.

When you say the revamp isn't happening here, is that just the ability to get 1 or 2 channels or the whole renaming and The addition of Action/Arena?

Delta2113

jack presley wrote: »

From the legal section:

"Main Even Channel is a bonus channel showing live content from the other Sky Sports channels at the same time as it is available on such channels. Only available with the Sky Sports complete pack."

What is the point of this channel if you can watch them on the channel they are on? I don't get it.

Bit like having the same match on Sky Sports 1 and 5 which has happened plenty -election coverage on Sky News and Sky Arts, Soccer AM on Sky Sports and Sky One -probably more examples.

icdg

jack presley wrote: »

When you say the revamp isn't happening here, is that just the ability to get 1 or 2 channels or the whole renaming and The addition of Action/Arena?

The revamp is happening here. The tiered pricing may or may not be (but I suspect Sky's Irish customer contact team may not actually know, judging from the Talk To Sky forum).

Captain_Crash

jack presley wrote: »

When you say the revamp isn't happening here, is that just the ability to get 1 or 2 channels or the whole renaming and The addition of Action/Arena?

Don't know, she just said the advertised revamp is UK only. I was cancelling so didn't really inquire as to the specifics of it because I wont be subscribing anyway.